Arête - Princess Alicorn of Hackers

by Lise

1. Welcome to the Dream Web

Nine past seven. She was late again. Thankfully, I had taken that into account and set the time of the meet-up one hour earlier. This way we wouldn't miss our window of opportunity and I'd still get to scream my head off at DD when she connected.

A swarm of white snowflakes floated above, glimmering against the magenta sky. Strange. What were Intrusion Countermeasures doing here? This was supposed the be an abandoned sector. Nothing here to merit the attention of ICE, at least not yet.

Moving from hoof to hoof, I watched the snowflakes brush against several neon spires before flying off into the distance. Of course, I also had two escape protocols ready the entire time. At the first sign of a threat, I'd be out of here faster than a falling muffin. Unlike the real world, the Dream Web wasn't a very nice place, not for those who could see beyond its shiny surface. Originally it was supposed to be quite different — a place of wonder, in which everything was possible. Instant communication, no borders, the ability to dream-sculpt objects into reality, were only a few of the promises given. I guess it achieved some of them, and had it been left that way, things might have been better. However, the Starswirl Conglomerate introduced the idea of payment for services, and that bucked up everything.

A beep echoed in my ear. DD had just texted an apology, saying she would be a few minutes late. Not that there ever was any doubt. Despite her impressive skill set in the Web, punctuality remained a foreign concept to her. I was so going to make a scene when she logged on. In the meantime, I took the opportunity to catch up on the latest gossip. Things had been slow the last few weeks. Ever since the Sombra virus had managed to shut down three sectors, nopony seemed to talk about anything else. Even the Everfree forums were mostly full of Sombra speculation threads. According to the latest theory, it was all a Conglomerate firewall experiment gone wrong. Absolute nonsense, in my view, but it kept ponies talking. Also, on the plus side, it had caused most of the big names to keep low, giving us little hackers a shot at fame.

"Dink?" I heard DD through voice chat. "Really, really sorry about this. Dad wanted to go through my homework. He's gone back to working a hundred hours per week, so he doesn't get a chance to see me as often, and...

"It's fine, DD," I sighed. There was no way I could get mad at her now. "Just get here, okay?"

"Already putting my gear on,” came the reply. Even through the mic I could hear her panic. "Sorry, sorry. I'll make it up to you."

I rolled my eyes. Always the same thing... DD was simply too kind for her own good. The sad thing was that she could only afford to be so in the Web. In the real world she was way different, so much so that she only had one real friend. Well, two including myself. We had agreed, however, to avoid contact as much as possible. It was better that way. Also, she wasn't the only one with secrets. Ever since the creation of the Dream Web, ponies had two lives — one in the real world and one in the Web. Often the two didn't overlap. I, myself, was feared as the terror of the Web. In real life, not so much.

A blue login cone appeared a short distance away, along with the message "DiamonD has connected." I watched as her avatar took form of her usual modified Purple Crystal Pony build. Nothing but eye candy, but it seemed to make her happy, as well as attract more than a fair share of admirers.

"Please tell me you aren't mad." She ran to me the moment her login was complete. "I know I promised I'd be on time for once, but..."

"It's fine, DD," I did my best to keep from shouting. Celestia, she really could get annoying. So different from what she was like in the real world. If I dared address her in that tone of voice in the real world, she would chew my head off and even Cheerilee wouldn't be able to save me. "Let's just get this thing done before the sector gets collapsed."

"Sure, right, of course," she nodded eagerly. Aether windows of various sizes popped around her. Paper thin rectangles of Dream magic, they floated in front of her, their code runes glowing in a soft pink. Most were protocols DD had written herself; her ability to extract and modify Web code was nothing less than frightening. "I just really hope we get something. I was offered five invites for the Bolt Tournament today and was sort of hoping to go..." Her voice trailed off.

Good thing my avatar couldn't frown, or I would have given DD a heart attack; I absolutely loathed Bolt. Many claimed it to be the best game there ever was — everypony's chance to experience being a Wonderbolt in a magnificent fantasy setting. Personally, I found it dumb. It also gave pegasi an unfair advantage, but, then again, all games did.

"We'll get something," I grumbled. "MaDster's hardly ever wrong."

DD didn't argue, but I could tell she still was disappointed. It was unfortunate, and I really did feel for her. Unlike me, she enjoyed participating in game tournaments. Not so much because she was good at it — she was downright terrible — but because she could spend time with ponies who hated her guts in the real world.

"When is our window?" DD asked.

"Seven minutes till start." I checked. "We'll have enough time, so don't rush things."

"I won't." She flicked her tail. I considered for a moment whether to tell her about the snowflakes. Best not to; they weren't here anymore, so there was no need to worry her.

"Heard any rumors lately?" I decided to take another approach. "Other than the Sombra virus thing. If I read another scriptpony conspiracy I might actually barf in my tech."

DD chuckled. At least it was easy to get her in a good mood.

"Word is that a Tri presence has been spotted Web-side," she said casually. "Only double confirmation so far, so it could be a hoax."

I froze. The Tris, or Triumvirs, were the creators of the Web, or rather the idea behind it. It was common knowledge that two Princesses and a zebra made the Dream Web. That, however, was false. No, they only created the first prototype. The Starswirl Conglomerate was the real creator, as they constantly reminded us all.

To have a Triumvir visit the Web was extremely rare nowadays. I saw two of them on a fairly regular basis in the real world, but that didn't count. They had no idea who I was here, and I wanted to keep it that way.

"Which one?" I did my best not to sound excited.

"Twilight and Zecora," DD said while modifying some of her protocol scripts. "There was one post about a Luna sighting, but I doubt it."

"Two at once?" I moved closer, pretending to examine her code.

"Remained a full minute above the Conglomerate cluster. Nopony is confirming anything, of course. Want to check it out?"

"Nah." I looked away. "One thing at a time. Let's get this thing done first."

"Sure thing. Five more minutes, right?"

I nodded. Five more minutes. Why did I feel nervous, though? This was supposed to be a quick job — wait till the sector was prepped for collapse and, then dig in to reach the source code. Rumor had it that hundreds, if not thousands, of undocumented functions could be found within. Access to such knowledge would undoubtedly provide a huge advantage, not to mention the bragging rights. I could imagine it now — my nick and DD's would be all over the forums. Even the big names would notice. It was even possible that we'd get to meet MaDster himself, and no longer rely on stolen, second-hoof chat logs to find out things he didn't wish to share with me. The future looked bright, and yet still I couldn't shake the feeling something wasn't right.

"DD, have you heard anything special about ICE changes?" I dared to ask. She gave me a puzzled look. "A snowflake swarm passed through here a few days ago," I lied. "That, plus two Tris showing up..."

"Is there any way they could be connected?" she interrupted.

"You know what, it's probably nothing. Just be ready to dig through the code once this starts. I'll take care of the rest."

One minute to go. Why can't I kick this feeling? The sector was completely empty. I had pinged twice to make sure. No other avatars, viruses or ICE systems. No alarming news in the early warning feed or the Conglomerate Eye.

"Thirty seconds," I said and activated a chameleon field around us, and just for good measure launched a couple protocols of my own. This way even if the snowflake swarm returned, we'd have three minutes before they could confirm us as a threat. Two aether windows appeared in front of me, displaying scans of the surrounding area. "Ten seconds."

DD started mumbling, saying thanks to the Web deities. One could say she was superstitious almost as much as a gamer. Still, if it helped her focus, who was I to complain?

"Window has started," I whispered. Beside me, DD finished her 'prayer' and then prepared a nuke packet, targeting the ground. Normally this wouldn't have any effect whatsoever. The way the Dream Web was constructed, nothing could affect landscape environments. The code was created by Princess Luna herself so as to be invulnerable. Any attempt to mod, delete, replace or move would be ignored. There was one loophole, though. A few minutes before a sector was collapsed, it lost all its properties. However, and this was the kicker, it retained a direct link to the source code. Rumor had it that all the big names had gotten to where they were by obtaining fragments of the code. They were all very secretive about it. The most I had managed to get out of them on the subject was that obtaining it was a rite of passage. Then again, the pony I had spoken to was clearly drunk at the time and did say some rather strange things, including that he was a royal pumpkin who migrated south.

"Here goes nothing," DD said and launched the nuke packet. I watched in wonder as a patch of ground in front of her lost its texture, transforming into a mesh of white strands. So far, so good.

"Leet, filly," I smiled. This was the first time I've seen actual dream strands. Exactly the same kind Princess Luna had used during her fight against the Tantabus years ago. Curiosity made me reach out to touch them with my hoof.

"Are you crazy?" DD promptly stopped me. "You've no idea what security is running on that!"

"DD, please," I grumbled. "If there were any..."

Suddenly, my aether screens started pulsing in red. Warning messages cascaded down the screen like waterfalls, covering them completely. This was bad, very very bad!

"I've cast a chameleon spell," I said, trying to appear calm. "You keep going."

Not a word to DD that a swarm of ICE had seen through my chameleon field and was heading towards us. Instantly I launched all avatar decoys and firewalls. Any other day I would be confident this would get the job done. Right now, I wasn't sure it would even slow them down.

"How long will you need?" I kept launching every virus in my arsenal in the hopes one would somehow divert the swarm of approaching snowflakes.

"Sorry, sorry!" came the response. I grumbled under my breath. DD only apologized like this when she was falling behind.

"Brute force it!" I desperately was going through the contents of my gear drive, hoping to find anything remotely useful. Camouflage proved to be useless; as for viruses, the ICE systems were disinfecting them faster than my system was launching them. "You can afford to be sloppy!"

A few snowflakes broke off from the swarm and approached me, mercilessly. I knew from past experience they were trying to inject code into my avatar. Once they did that, they had a relatively good chance of finding and discovering my real world location. My personal details were masked, naturally, but that wasn't much of a guarantee.

"DD!" I started my scrambling mesh protocol. "We're out of time, filly."

"Please don't lag, please don't lag," she said, her words barely understandable. "Mother of hackers, please don't let it lag!"

Buck it! No way I was hanging around. Without a moment's hesitation, I launched both disconnect protocols. Unlike DD, I didn't have the means to afford an avatar with an auto disconnect feature. To my great surprise and horror, neither of them had any effect whatsoever.

"Don't do this to me!" I shouted as more snowflakes gathered. I had spent months going through the Web upgrading my avatar. All the data raids, the firewall testing, everything had gone to waste. Not only that, but my gear would also be rendered useless. Only foals entered the Web with tagged gear. I would be forced to flash the aether storage and throw it away. And since my family wasn't rich, that was a serious problem.

"Harpy, I think we..." DD started saying. I never got to finish the rest of the sentence. One of the stupid snowflakes had managed pierce my scrambler. The neon colored landscape of the Dream Web vanished, replaced by the soft tones of my bedroom. I had just been ejected Into the real world.

"Buck this nonsense!" I shouted and levitated my headgear off and into the wall. My body was still full of rage and adrenaline. This wasn't the first time it had happened. It usually took me a while to return to my normal self.

The door to my room swung open violently, revealing a rather annoyed purple unicorn. I swallowed.

"Dink!" she said, her voice dripping with disappointment. "What did I say about swearing?"

"Sorry," I looked guiltily at the floor.

"What if mom were here?" she continued, entering my room. "It's bad enough you spend all your time in the Web. You could at least behave properly outside!"

Always the same conversation. Not without reason, though. Amethyst was my big sister and I loved her a lot. Her understanding of the Web, however, was laughable. In her mind it was nothing more than a second Equestria, only with more straight lines and structures. How could she understand what lurked beneath the shiny surface?

"Sorry, Sis," I felt my aggression slowly phase away. "I'll be careful. Promise."

"Well I hope so, because this is the last time I'm having this conversation with you!"

That's what she said every time. Good thing she never meant it. I muttered some excuse, as usual. We both knew I wouldn't keep my word, though this time I was going to try, like seriously try. Things were complicated as it was without me getting on Amethyst's bad side. Sure, she might be bossy and insufferable sometimes, but she was my sister and always looked out for me in this world.

"Food is in the kitchen," she said, giving me a careful look over. Shameful as it was, I was still suffering from dyspepsia — mostly a result of bad posture — and my family was convinced it was due to my Web habits. Therefore, I was on a carefully selected diet. "Tidy up and come down."

"Yes, Sis," I said quietly.

"After that it's homework, bath and off to bed. No Dream Web or anything similar, got that?"

"Yes, Sis," I sighed. Not like I could enter the Web even if I wanted. That was a matter for another time — how to break the news that the gear Amethyst had spent half of her savings on, had just been rendered useless.

"Oh, one more thing," she suddenly stopped, causing me almost to bump into her. "A colt from your class passed by. Apparently he was under the impression you needed help with your 'Photography assignment' and was wondering when would be a good time. Is there anything I should know?"

I could feel the blood rushing to my face. Damn it, Sis, why do you have to be at home all the time! Don't you have a job or coltfriend or something?

"Must have slipped my mind," I looked to the side, avoiding her glance. "You know how Cheerilee is with homework. She gives out so many assignments it's difficult to keep up with them all."

"Well then," Amethyst narrowed her eyes. Way to go, me — now I had made her twice as curious. "It's a good thing I invited him over tomorrow after school. Couldn't let you fail your assignments now, could I?" The grin of a thousand Nightmare Moons appeared on her face.

Merciful Celestia, take me now! I screamed internally.

Author's Note:

Web Gear - virtual reality headset similar to Oculus rift. Allows the subject to enter a dream-like state, thus accessing the Dream Web. Contains an aether storage crystal that holds all Web Avatar data.
Licensed for use by the Starswirl Conglomerate, following patent 1147a-TwS.

Comments

[Kitty Creeper]

Ooooooh, the plot thickens.

[Swan Song]

Holy cucumbers the world-building in this is off the friggin shizzo and your exposition is so naturally delivered wtf

[Hobbestc]

One chapter down. Looking good so far.

[wlam]

This story is starting out amazing already. It's like the most adorable session of Shadowrun I've ever seen. I wonder what they use in place of cyberdecks.

[Lise]

6739202 :) Glad you enjoy :)
I wouldn't want to spoilt... But they use Crystal tech :) well, sort of :D Their Web gear has a more oculus feel, than pure jacking. :D
Also - keep an eye on DD.

[DragonMaus]

Oh wow. I'm going to enjoy this.

[Zaid ValRoa]

I'm not sure how I feel about the infodumping this early on, but you've got me hooked.

Hackers, shady companies, double lives and secret identities. You're doing an interesting job of setting a cyberpunk enviroment, though I guess with the way the Dream Web works it kind of straddles the line with magicpunk.

While ambivalent towards some aspects of the story, you can count me in for the long haul. Let's see where you'll take this.

[Lyrafan38]

Just found this story out and I am absolutely hooked so far.
This is an amazing story!

[AyanamiRei]

So far I notice you using a lot of the same terms as Shadowrun for their VR Internet stuff. So I am really quite curious to see where all of this will go next!